Artworks: Painting with great purpose

Joliet Central High School alumnus raffing artist proof to establish scholarship in his name

At a class reunion in 1996, Charles Carman Pierce wanted to share art with his classmates in a personal way.

So he set up a table in the hallway and sketched some of their portraits in charcoal.

"I wanted to give back to them something from me," Pierce, a member of the Joliet Central High School class of 1960 and now of Florida, said.

Pierce is now giving back in a greater way.

This fall, the JTHS Foundation is raffling an 11” x 14” artist proof of a painting of a painting featuring set of Central’s original south doors. The painting is called "Tradition Welcomes Future."

Pierce spent 1,000 hours over two years to create the painting, which will hang at Central, Mark Turk, foundation president said. The proof is signed, dated, matted and ready for framing, Turk said.
Turk called the original piece "exquisite" and praised its "great artistry."

Pierce said Turk suggested the scholarship during a class reunion in 2015. Pierce, who comes from a family of artists, said he liked the idea.

His grandfather came to the United States from England hoping to fulfill his dream of making a career as an artist, Pierce said It didn't happen.

"The closet thing he came to being an artist was being the janitor who swept the floor at the

Gerlach Barklow card factory and look over the other artists' shoulders," Pierce said.
But Pierce's grandfather did pass his talent onto Pierce's mother.

"She would do drawings like paper dolls," Pierce said. "And she would draw their clothes and cut them out and paste them on there. Her mother was a seamstress from England who could make anything. And my mother picked up that talent."

Pierce said his mother was best known for her plaster dolls, dressed in clothes she sewed for them.

"She would triple-stitch the stitches in them," Pierce said. "The clothes never wore out."

As a boy, Pierced sketched from catalogues. In high school he sketched the "people across the room instead of paying to the teacher."

"The teacher didn't like it very much," Pierce said.

In 1957 at the age of 15, Pierce received five free lessons from Obe Smith, an art student who studied with European artists in the art schools of Chicago, Pierce said.
In his website, Pierce said Smith "demonstrated the use of the charcoal stick and values of the medium, the secrets of the feather touch and use of layering so as to bring the subject out of the paper and to life."

From Smith, Pierce also received great advice.

"Mr. Smith told me, 'Do art for yourself and work at some other job," Pierce said. "Use art for therapy and save it for yourself."

A news release from Joliet Township High School District 204 and Pierce's website said Pierce studied locally under artist John Hudak and attended Joliet Junior College, where he studied under Earl Kurtz and M. Kassiday.

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nspiration: "I like to paint wherever I go and don't like to limit myself as far as medium or subject.

Goal: "To get my art to be so that people will look at it and feel emotional, almost to where they cry. If it doesn't have empathy or any emotion, it's just a copy of a picture. "

Words of wisdom: "Study as many different artists as you can but don't duplicate their style; find your own voice."

Make checks for the raffle payable to the JTHS Foundation. Mail to the JTHS Foundation at 300 Caterpillar Drive, Joliet, IL 60436. The foundation will complete the ticket stub information, deposit them, and return the ticket portion as proof of receipt.

For more information about the raffle, including ticket purchase, call Mark Turk at 815-922-4065 or visit www.jthsfoundation.org.